The invention concerns a combat vehicle, especially an armored howitzer, with a rotating turret behind its center, with a heavy weapon that can be elevated and lowered mounted on the turret, with at least one ammunition magazine inside and near the center of the vehicle that accommodates ammunition stowed upright while leaving an access space essentially extending along the length of the vehicle, and with an automatic ammunition feed that removes one shell at a time from the ammunition magazine, rotates and aligns it parallel with the length of the vehicle, conveys it to the rear of the weapon, orients it such that it matches the orientation of the weapon in azimuth and elevation at that particular instant, and lifts it into the firing position, whereby the ammunition feed comprises
(a) an ammunition conveyor in the vicinity of the ammunition magazine with an arm that has a pivoting grip at the end,
(b) an load-ready round tray behind the ammunition conveyor in terms of the length of the vehicle,
(c) an ammunition-conveying rail behind the ammunition conveyor that rotates around an axis perpendicular to the floor of the vehicle and concentric with the axis that the turret rotates around,
(d) an ammunition-transfer arm that pivots independent of the weapon on the weapon's trunnion within the plane of elevation or in a plane parallel thereto, that can be lowered into the vehicle, and that has a loading tray at the free end and behind the weapon, and
(e) drive mechanisms and controls for the ammunition conveyor, the ammunition-conveying rail, and the ammunition-transfer arm.
A combat vehicle of this type is known, from German OS 3 642 920 A1, which was not published prior to the instant application, for example.
In the older combat vehicle, the ammunition is obtained from the ammunition conveyor by means of a ammunition-conveying arm perpendicular to the floor of the vehicle and moving in a plane parallel to the floor. At the other end of the arm is a pivoting grip. The ammunition-conveying arm is suspended from and slides along a rail that extends along the length of the vehicle and is itself suspended from and slides perpendicular to the length of the vehicle along two rails that extend perpendicular to the length of the vehicle.
When ammunition is supplied, a shell is removed by the ammunition-conveying arm, rotated 90.degree., and oriented parallel with the length of the vehicle. It is finally inserted into a load-ready round tray that is secured to the floor and parallels the length of the vehicle, whence an ejector thrusts it into an ammunition-conveying rail, where advance mechanisms convey it farther forward. The ammunition-conveying rail is oriented parallel with the particular position of the weapon at any moment. The ammunition-transfer arm, which has a pivoting loading tray mounted on it, is then lowered until the tray enters the ammunition-conveying rail and positions itself coaxial with it. The shell can now be thrust into the loading tray and, once the ammunition-transfer arm has been pivoted up into its limiting position, brought to the rear of the weapon.